Waving Flag

K'naan's iconic hit, which fully eclipsed Shakiras confusing, unmelodic attempt at a world cup song, not only captured the spirit of the FIFA world cup, it also pulled the rug from under the organisers feet. Its not the only such case either. Dutch fans were coopted by a Dutch firm in a very cheeky ambush marketing campaign.

The upstaging of the official world cup song, goes to the essence of Waving Flags lyrics. It is a song about great struggles against injustice and poverty, which yields to a freedom just like a waving flag. The great image of Liberty leading the people, by Delacroix, conveys the same theme. So did Verdi's slave chorus, which captured the yearnings of the Hebrews when they were exiled to Babylon. There are so many similar themes all speaking of the greatest cries of humanity.

Football is generally a working class game, although it is also enjoyed by the upper classes. Certainly it is a sure route from rags to riches for those talented enough to reach the top of the game. So why FIFA opted to go with Waka-Waka instead of Waving Flag is mystifying. The naive answer was that Waving Flag is a revolutionary song.

"Born to throne, stronger than Rome, a violent prone poor people zone

but its my home, all I have known, where I got grown streets we would roam

Out of the darkness I came the farthest, among the hardest survival

learn from these streets, it can be bleak, accept no defeat, surrender, retreat

When I get older, I will be stronger, they call me freedom, just like a waving flag ...

and then it goes back and then it goes back."

It is so true that very few transcend the ghettoes of this world, but when they do they are like a waving flag, leading the poor to hope. They remind me of the biblical story in 2 Kings 7, where four lepers who lived outside the gates of the besieged city of Samaria. One morning, having nothing to lose, they went into the Syrian enemy camp and found it deserted and then went to tell the whole town, thus saving many wretched, starved and battle weary souls.

There can be nothing more liberating than one person who makes a difference and lights the way to salvation so that others may follow. Jesus did that, and now his faithful band also waves their flags and fly their banners - declaring to the whole world that there is a way of escape from the squalor of life. For when he stepped over His fallen foes and held up the keys of death and hell, we found freedom, just like a waving flag.

(c) Peter Eleazar @ www.4u2live.net